Isaiah 30:18-26

Yahweh Will Show Mercy

18 Therefore Yahweh waits to be gracious [to] you, and therefore he will rise up to show you mercy, for Yahweh [is] a God of justice; blessed [are] all those who wait for him.
19 For people will live in Zion; in Jerusalem, you will surely not weep. Surely he will be gracious to you; when he hears the sound of your cry, he will answer you.
20 And the Lord will give you [the] bread [of] distress and [the] water [of] oppression, but your teachers will not hide themselves any longer. And your eyes {shall see} your teachers.
21 And your ears shall hear a word from behind you, saying, "this [is] the way; walk in it," when you go to your right and when you go to your left.
22 And you will defile the plating of your silver idols and the covering of your gold image. You will scatter them like contaminated things; you will say to it, "Filth!"
23 And he will give rain for your seed [with] which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and {fertile}. On that day, your cattle will graze [in] broad pastures;
24 and the oxen and the donkeys that till the ground will eat fodder, sorrel that [has] been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
25 And there will be streams on every high mountain and elevated hill, watercourses of water, on a day of great slaughter, when towers fall.
26 And the light of the full moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on [the] day [when] Yahweh binds up the breakage of his people, and he heals the wound of his blow.

Isaiah 30:18-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 30

This chapter contains a complaint of the Jews for their sins and transgressions; a prophecy of their destruction for them; a promise of grace and mercy, and of happy times, to the saints; and a threatening of utter and dreadful ruin to the wicked. The Jews are complained of for their rebellion against God, their slighting his counsel and protection, their trust in Egypt, and application there for help; whither they went with their riches for safety, but in vain, it being contrary to the will and counsel of God, Isa 30:1-7 next follows a denunciation of ruin and destruction for these things, rebellion, and lying, and vain confidence, as well as for contempt of the word of God, which, that it might appear sure and certain, is ordered to be written in a book, Isa 30:8-12 and this ruin is signified by the sudden falling of a wall, and by the breaking of a potter's vessel into pieces, which can never be used more, Isa 30:13,14 and seeing they rejected the way of salvation proposed by the Lord, and took their own way, first destruction is threatened them, which should be very easily brought about, and become so general, that few should escape it, Isa 30:15-17 and then promises of grace and mercy are made to them that wait for the Lord, Isa 30:18 such as a dwelling place in Zion, hearing their prayers, granting them teachers to instruct them, and the riddance of idolatry from them, Isa 30:19-22 and also many outward blessings, as seasonable rain, good bread corn, fat pastures, good food for cattle, and fruitfulness of mountains and hills, Isa 30:23-25 likewise an amazing degree of spiritual light and glory, and healing of the Lord's people, Isa 30:26 and the chapter is concluded with a threatening Of God's wrath upon the Assyrian, expressed by various similes, as of an angry man, an overflowing torrent, a tempest of thunder, lightning, and hail, and the fire of Tophet, Isa 30:27-33.

Footnotes 8

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.